Pinchas Polonsky

Pinchas Polonsky (Russian: Полонский Петр (Пинхас) Ефимович, born 1958) is a Russian-Israeli Jewish-religious philosopher, researcher, and educator active among the Russian-speaking Jewish community. He has written several original books as well as a number of translations of important works on Judaism. Dr. Polonsky initiated the academic wiki-encyclopedia on Jewish and Israeli topics www.ejwiki.org

During his underground activities in Moscow (1977–1987), he taught Judaism and was one of the founders of Machanaim. Today he lives in Israel, is an activist in the process of the modernization of Judaism, teaches in Ariel University, and is a researcher on the topics of the late Rav Kook. Polonsky is the author of the commentary on Torah under the title "Biblical Dynamics". Polonsky is the head of the Russian department of Brit Olam im Noahide World Center in Jerusalem. He is also a prolific writer who is often cited and published and whose articles are published in the press.

Series of prayer books with commentaries.

This initiative launched by Pinchas Polonsky began with an underground edition of the Pesach Haggadah with commentaries in the 1980s in Moscow. The Haggadah was published using photocopying equipment and distributed in hundreds of copies across Moscow and other major cities of the former Soviet Union. This Hagadah was meant to instruct in leading an exciting and spiritual Seder.

In Israel Polonsky together with Machanaim published: a Siddur (prayer book) with a Russian translation and commentaries titled "Vrata Molitvy" (Gates of Prayer, not to confuse with the Reform "Gates of Prayer, the New Union Prayer Book"). Until this day it remains the most widely used prayer book in Russian, transliterated edition is also available); Machzor "Gates of Repentance" for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; Passover Haggadah with commentaries; a book titled "Obligations of the Living", on the laws of mourning, as well as a series of books about Jewish holiday customs and observance.

Research of r. Kook's legacy

In 1991 Polonsky partnered with Rav Kook's Home Residence Museum in Jerusalem and prepared for publishing a compilation of r. Kook's works titled "Tolerance in the Teaching of r. Kook".

In the course of his research of r. Kook's philosophy and body of work, he wrote and published a study (monograph) titled "Rav Abraham Isaac Kook. Life and Teaching". In 2009 the main chapters of the book were translated and published in English, and in 2013 - in Hebrew. It became the first book on Jewish religious thought translated from Russian to Hebrew. The book was approved by several outstanding rabbinical authorities on the subject of r. Kook's philosophy and was recommended by them to be included in the Religious Zionism academic curriculum.

Torah commentaries "The Biblical Dynamics"

A series of books presenting a new commentary to the Torah, based on the Kabbalistic concepts of R. I. L. Ashkenazi (Manitou) and on new findings of R. Uri Sherki, which included the author's own original concepts and interpretations. As of March 2020, a full commentary on the Torah (11 books) have been published. An English translation of Genesis, Part A, "Be Reshit - Chayei Sarah" has been published in the fall of 2019.[9]. The first part of Genesis in Ukrainian has been published in 2019 as well.

Other works

In 2009 Polonsky - among others - became one of the founders of an Academic wiki-encyclopedia on Jewish and Israeli topics. The goal of the project is the publication of a complementary (to Wikipedia and other sources), quality, academically viable information on Judaism, Jews and Israel on the Russian Internet.

Polonsky is the initiator and Coordinator for the project "Preserving the Memory", whose purpose is to preserve the memory of the Jewish-Zionist underground movement in the USSR. He is also the founder of the "Fight Against Intellectual Antisemitism" project.

Religious views and philosophy

Pinchas Polonsky attributes himself to the radically modernist wing of religious Zionism, whose essence is orthodox modernization of Judaism, in other words - active modernization with strict adherence to an orthodox Jewish approach. In this he sees himself as a follower of r. Kook and a partner to r. Uri Sherki.

Polonsky supports integration of universal ideas into religion creating a healthy symbiosis. He views modernization of religion as an absolute religious necessity or a prerequisite.Believes in religious importance of science, art, democracy, and other universal secular values; a proponent of the initiative to introduce "a day of science" in Israeli high-school curricula: to demonstrate productive synergy which can be achieved by combining science and religion.

Active in promoting ideas and concepts of Bnei Noah.

Advocates access to and prayer at the Temple Mount for the Jews.

Author of the concept of "Three Stages of the Arrival of the Messiah" (as opposed to the two-stage approach, widely accepted by religious Zionism today).

Introduced the concept of religious anti-fundamentalism, in other words - an opposition to religious fundamentalism based on the concepts of "continuing and organic Revelation".